This report serves as a tool to project teams working on Results-Based Financing (RBF) projects in the energy sector. It provides sector-specific entry points, key questions to consider, and sample objectives and indicators that can be used to consider how RBF can be used to close the gender gap.

Access to clean water remains a struggle for many of the poorest households in rural areas. GPRBA collaborated with the World Bank in Tanzania to bring safe, clean water to 165 villages in the country by combining blended financing with emerging technologies including solar water pumps, pre-paid meters, chlorination and remote sensors.

In 2015, the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA) approved a US$4.95 million grant to increase access to grid-based electricity services for 22,000 low-income households and 5,000 micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in urban and peri-urban areas through use of targeted subsidies, with the aim of reaching low-income communities who would otherwise have gone unserved.

In 2011, GPOBA provided a grant to the local power utility, Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), to ensure broad-based and inclusive access to electricity and significantly improve living conditions among the poor in low-income households in Monrovia.

In Bangladesh, a blended finance approach has been used to extend access to off-grid electricity for rural low-income households. An output-based aid (OBA) grant in combination with microcredit from local partner organizations (POs)—mostly nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) with experience in microfinance—enhances affordability of clean energy technology for low-income consumers.

Given the significant financing gap to meet the needs of developing countries and achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals*, governments, multilaterals and other development partners are increasingly looking to the private sector to help fill this gap.